Shot cop sees thug get 25 years

Apr. 25, 2006 -- It took six years, but a cop who was shot in the
leg and still carries 25 pieces of shrapnel in his body finally
got to see the suspect packed off to prison.

The road to justice was long and winding for Detective David Gonzalez,
who had to endure a judge with an anti-police reputation setting
defendant Williams Hodges free on a technicality several years ago.

But Gonzalez was all smiles yesterday as a new judge sentenced
Hodges to 25 years behind bars for the 1996 shooting.

"I couldn't be happier," Gonzalez said. "I feel
like I can finally move on with my life."

A Queens jury convicted Hodges, 33, of assault and other charges
last month for drunkenly struggling with the cop in the stairwell
of a Queens apartment building.

Gonzalez's own 9-mm. Glock went off during the struggle, the bullet
shattering his hip.

Hodges nearly dodged a bullet of his own in 2002 when Queens Supreme
Court Justice Laura Blackburne, a friend of his mother, ruled he
had been denied a speedy trial.

While he was free, Hodges was busted for biting another officer
and convicted of assault.

Blackburne's decision was eventually overturned. She is suspended
while appealing a state recommendation she be removed from the bench
for allowing a suspect in her courtroom to evade cops.